Recently, I completed a group research presentation on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom, focusing on chatbots like ChatGPT, and how students should learn to use this tool.

What we found in our research is that there are so many different ways we can use ChatGPT in an educational setting, for both educators and students, but there is an undeniable fear surrounding how we are going to teach students to use ChatGPT as a tool in an ethical, and appropriate way. 

We found that with the countless different ways students could use ChatGPT to support their learning they needed to perceive the tool as easy to use, and useful in order to “buy-in” on using it. The easier it seemed for students, the more useful they felt it was, which led to them being satisfied with it. As satisfaction grew, the more useful they felt it was, and the cycle continues (Boubker, 2024).

When it comes to teaching students how to use ChatGPT appropriately we venture into a new type of digital literacy skills called AI literacy. What we found were two broad thematic categories, each with their own group of subcategories:

  1. AI learning experiences focused on understanding a particular AI concept, technique, tool, or platform to illustrate some AI concepts
    1. Learning to recognize artifacts using AI
    2. Learning about how AI works
    3. Learning tools for AI
    4. Learning for life with AI
  2. Initiatives for implementing AI education through developing guidelines, curriculum design, or teacher training
    1. AI literacy curriculum design
    2. AI as a subject in K-12 education
    3. Student perspective on AI literacy
    4. Teacher training in AI
    5. AI literacy support resources
    6. Gender diversity in AI literacy

(Casal-Otero et al., 2023).

You can find more details on our findings in our whole presentation, linked here. 

I’d like to focus further on the idea of AI literacy. How are we going to teach our students about using this tool in an appropriate way, and how are we going to ensure that everyone is getting the same level of education or understanding of how to use this tool? 

Because ChatGPT is so new, having landed in our world in November of 2022, the literature is still fresh, we are still learning about it. When we approach the idea of AI literacy, we need to come up with a curriculum, but be open to the changes that are inevitably going to occur as the technology continues to evolve and we find new ways to use it. 

Finally, I’d like to briefly touch on my thoughts about the Turning Teacher (Pelaez et al., 2022). I don’t think we are in the place where we as educators are going to be completely replaced by an AI teacher in the K-12 system, not yet. I think we should embrace and adapt to the new technology and use it as much as possible, because the human connection we as educators have with our students isn’t something that can be replicated by AI, and I don’t think it will be any time soon. So let’s spend our time and energy focusing on providing our students this connection and let AI do the other work. 

I will leave you with this short video clip from Sinead Bovell, who focuses on these very ideas. 

Sinead Bovell – Why ChatGPT Won’t Ruin Education. 

References

Boubker, O. (2024). From chatting to self-educating: Can AI tools boost student learning outcomes? Expert Systems with Applications, 238, 121820. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.121820

Casal-Otero, L., Catala, A., Fernández-Morante, C., Taboada, M., Cebreiro, B., & Barro, S. (2023). AI Literacy in K-12: A Systematic Literature Review. International Journal of STEM Education, 10(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-023-00418-7

Pelaez, A., Jacobson, A., Trias, K., & Winston, E. (2022). The Turing Teacher: Identifying Core Attributes for AI Learning in K-12. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 5, 1031450. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2022.1031450